--Cleaning out the exhibit in the morning.
--Feeding and watering all four rhinos (They each eat 15lbs. of grain, about half a bale of alfalfa, some hay, and dietary supplements including vitamin E and equine formulas for strong horns and hooves.)
--Picking up stalls and yards--bust out the shovels and brooms!
--Hosing down the stalls and squeegee-ing them out afterwards because standing water is bad for rhino hooves.
--Doing some sort of behavioral enrichment, which is conveniently all planned out on a monthly basis.
--Cutting up tons of produce for treats. They love apples, carrots, pears, sweet potatoes, corn, and bananas!
--Feeding the rhino on exhibit the produce during the rhino keeper chat during which my hand usually gets insanely muddy. Rhinos wallow in the mud to keep the sunburns down, the flys off, and their body temperatures regulated.
--Performing other projects to prepare for the upcoming AZA accreditation--like painting in front of the meerkat exhibits or discovering a copperhead and a garter snake in piles of leaves while raking out behind a shed. Or sometimes just doing fun things like making produce popsicles for the rhinos.
If this was all that happened, it would be a typical day. Luckily for the adventurous young girl inside of me, this is seldom all that goes on during a day at the zoo. Yesterday, I got to observe the immunization of an oryx calf born the day before. Kirk let me listen to its heartbeat and I assisted in getting a sample of skin to test for BVD, a virus that occurs in cattle. The little girl appears pretty healthy, but her blood will still be sent in for testing. There's another new addition in the barn who I met yesterday, too. Jaba the toad is monstrous, but somehow manages to flatten himself out underneath the stall doors. He hangs out in the same general vicinity in the barn, so I see him most days.
Today began with baths for the rhinos, which consist of hosing them down. They LOVE it. Imara gets so excited she nearly slips and falls on the concrete floors as she spins in circles. Today she rolled over on her side so we could spray her stomach. After their horns (which are made of keratin like your fingernails and hair) are nice and wet, they start rubbing them against the walls and bars of their stalls to shape them. It stinks. Literally.
It started storming horribly after the zoo had been open for about an hour. The giraffe had to come inside. Picture the tallest lightning rod you've ever seen standing in the middle of the flat, open savannah. Bad idea. Murphy, the only male giraffe out of the four, let me scratch his snout for the first time today. The giraffe are pretty shy, so it was good to be accepted! Then, during lunch, the power went out. I got to wear a big, bright yellow rain slicker whenever we went outside. We continued to do some work in the dark. Before leaving for the day, I helped move produce and fish from one freezer to another in a building with a backup generator so the food wouldn't rot over night. Hopefully the power is back on now! On our way back to Africa, we stopped by the newly finished Aviary Row and saw some macaws, tamarins, agoutis, toucans, Diablo the iguana, owls, and a peacock. A good, adventure-filled day for sure!
God Bless,
Liz
Zoo-rific Fact of the Day: Rhinos have really bad eyesight, which is why they're known to charge in the wild. They can't see past about 100 feet, except for shapes and shadows. So, when they get startled by someone or see a shadow, they immediately charge at it and then try to figure out what it is. They're much better at hearing! They are hunted for their horns, which is why only around 3,000 are left in the wild.
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